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Kenya Police: Our Fake Bomb Detectors Are Real

Posted by timothy on from the but-how-are-the-elephant-detectors? dept.

First time accepted submitter NF6X writes "Following the conviction of British conman James McCormick for selling fake bomb detectors which were in fact rebadged novelty golf ball divining rods, Nairobi police chief Benson Githinji stated to reporters that his department's fake bomb detectors are serviceable, and contributed towards a recent elimination of successful grenade attacks."

9 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Works just fine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    1) Give intern new shiny bomb detector
    2) Send intern to walk around field for a while
    3) Intern blows up
    4) Success - bomb detected!
    5) Added bonus - bomb removed!

  2. Won't work. by msauve · · Score: 5, Funny

    Didn't you read the summary? It's a fake bomb detector. It won't detect real bombs.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    1. Re:Won't work. by interval1066 · · Score: 4, Funny

      The shining endorsement is by a people who also believe in sympathetic magic and possession by evil spirits. Of course the bomb detectors work; you just have to activate them by burning insense in a slot on the side of the detector and appealing to "J'mbibwe", god of bombs and bush babies.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
  3. Re:no testing I guess? by rwise2112 · · Score: 1, Funny

    You'd think if you were buying some devices claiming to detect something-or-other, you would try out a specimen and see if it works. Did all of these countries he sold them to fail to do any testing on whether they worked?

    You see they are not using them right. They are trying to detect 'real bombs', when clearly this is a 'fake bomb' detector!

    --

    "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert"
  4. Re:Reminiscent of Bagdad-Bob by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    He knew this because his tank detector was reading zero.

  5. Re:no testing I guess? by nitehawk214 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Problem is confirmation bais is really easy to sell on people, so they honestly believe they did test it out and it worked.

    You are only saying that because you want people to believe in confirmation bias.

    --
    I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
  6. Great news for Nigerian princes! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If these things don't work, it's great news for all those Nigerian princes trying to move money - just route it through Kenya! No more depending on those greedy and overly-skeptical first-world emailers.

  7. It works just fine..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    you're just not holding it right.

    Jobs

  8. Re:Slashdot criminal activity... apk by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Funny

    STOP REPLYING TO THESE. The only reason I can see them is because you reply and then get modded up which brings the entire post into my view.

    So true. Mod parent up!